[7]
Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, A.I.) plays Walter, a boy whose mother abandons him with his two reclusive old uncles, Garth and Hub (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall), who end up providing him with a more meaningful upbringing than he ever expected. Stuck in a deteriorating farm house in the middle of nowhere, Walter is daunted by the uncles’ love of firearms and aversion to talking. There’s no telephone or television, either. But when the uncles realize Walter’s mother (Kyra Sedgwick) may never come back for him, they reluctantly open up to him and do their best to parent him — albeit in their own, strange ways. Those ways involve skeet shooting, having a retired circus lion as a pet, getting into fights with teen boys, and hearing the uncles’ exciting stories of their time in the French Foreign Legion. When Walter’s mother makes a surprising return with an abusive new boyfriend, a tough decision must be made.
Walter and his uncles of course become a real family, filling holes in each others hearts and giving them reasons to carry on. The sweetness is cut by a healthy sense of humor, much of which comes from the uncles’ daily ritual of sitting on their porch with rifles, ready to fire at all the door-to-door salesmen who come knocking. The uncles have a mysterious fortune that also brings unwanted attention from greedy family members. Did the fortune come from their Foreign Legion encounters with a villainous sheikh? Or are local rumors true — that the brothers are really retired mobsters? That mystery drives the second half of the film.
The flashbacks of the uncles’ adventures (featuring Christian Kane and Kevin Haberer as young Garth and Hub) threaten to stall the film’s momentum, but they’re short and humorous enough to forgive. The screenplay isn’t as taut or streamlined as it maybe should be, but Secondhand Lions gives Michael Caine and Robert Duvall — two much loved veteran actors — the chance to cut loose a little with some warm and quirky performances. Osment holds his own with them in a couple of scenes. Secondhand Lions is an unabashedly sentimental coming-of-age movie that wears its heart on its sleeve. Cynical viewers may want to steer clear, but if you don’t mind a little well-meaning emotional manipulation, you may find yourself moved by writer/director Tim McCanlies’s storytelling.
With Josh Lucas, Deirdre O’Connell, Nicky Katt, and a fitting score by Patrick Doyle.